Then, since we have somewhat weighed the virtues of prosperity, let us consider on the other hand the afore-named things that are the matter of merit and reward in tribulation—­that is, patience, conformity, and thanksgiving.  Patience the wealthy man hath not, in so far as he is wealthy.  For if he be pinched in any point in which he taketh patience, to that extent he suffereth some tribulation.  And so not by his prosperity but by his tribulation hath he that merit.  It is the same if we would say that the wealthy man hath another virtue instead of patience—­that is, the keeping of himself from pride and such other sins as wealth would bring him to.  For the resisting of such motions is, as I before told you, without any doubt a diminishing of fleshly wealth, and is a very true kind (and one of the most profitable kinds) of tribulation.  So all that good merit groweth to the wealthy man not by his wealth but by the diminishing of his wealth with wholesome tribulation.

The most colour of comparison is in the other two; that is, in the conformity of man’s will unto God, and in thanks given unto God.  For as the good man, in tribulation sent him by God, conformeth his will to God’s will in that behalf, and giveth God thanks for it; so doth the wealthy man, in his wealth which God giveth him, conform his will to God in that point, since he is well content to take it as his gift, and giveth God also right hearty thanks for it.  And thus, as I said, in these two things can you catch the most colour to compare the wealthy man’s merit with the merit of tribulation.

But yet that they be not matches, you may soon see by this:  For no one can conform his will unto God’s in tribulation and give him thanks for it, but such a man as hath in that point a very specially good disposition.  But he that is truly wicked, or hath in his heart but very little good, may well be content to take wealth at God’s hand, and say, “Marry, I thank you, sir, for this with all my heart, and I will not fail to love you well—­while you let me fare no worse!” Confitebitur tibi, cum benefeceris ei. Now, if the wealthy man be very good, yet, in conformity of his will and thanksgiving to God for his wealth, his virtue is not like to that of him who doth the same in tribulation.  For, as the philosophers said very well of old, “virtue standeth in things of hardness and difficulty.”  And then, as I told you, it is much less hard and less difficult, by a great deal, to be content and conform our will to God’s will and to give him thanks, too, for our ease than for our pain, for our wealth and for our woe.  And therefore the conforming of our will to God’s and the thanks that we give him for our tribulation are more worthy of thanks in return, and merit more reward in the very fast wealth and felicity of heaven, than our conformity and our thanksgiving for our worldly wealth here.